THE Nigerian Navy (NN) has warned its operatives to stay away from politics and ensure criminal elements do not have access to the waterways. This warning was issued at the weekend by the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Naval Training Command (NAVTRAC) Rear Admiral Stanfford Enoch at the decoration of newly promoted officers of the command. A total of nine officers, comprising a Commander, three Captains and five Commodores were shipped to their new ranks at a brief ceremony held at… Read more

Our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Inexplicably our Dapchi girl, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released. More than 100 gallant officers and men of the Nigerian armed forces who were also our fathers, husbands, sons and brothers fell victim to Boko Haram’s unfathomably murderous ideology and evil ways. Add the Boko Haram’s kidnap of Gamdoru citizens numbering 50 with a very horrifying and emotionally terrorising uncertain fate as near-slaves, sex slaves and even become victims of staged… Read more

Money withdrawn in cash, witness tells court A witness told yesterday of how about N5.7 billion Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) funds went down the drain. Mr Nasiru Ingawa, Special Adviser to former Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema on SURE-P, said at the Federal High Court in Katsina that Shema directed him to spend the cash on politics. The former special adviser testified at the resumed hearing of a fraud case against Shema. Shema is standing trial before the… Read more

They are never filled because with each eating, their throat gets longer, like Pinocchio's nose. This is why Nigerians are going around looking dazed, like people under attack from Mars Pinocchio, for those of us who have not read the story, is the titular name of a fictional character created by an Italian writer, Carlo Collodi. In the story, Pinocchio is a wooden puppet sculpted by a man called Geppetto, but the puppet dreams of becoming a real boy. His… Read more

Looking at a king’s mouth, one would think he never sucked at his mother’s breast”, observes an old man in Things Fall Apart . Last week, the good people of Oyo town, distinguished Yoruba sons and daughters as well as numerous Nigerian well-wishers, rose as one to pay homage to one of Nigeria’s most illustrious monarchs ever. The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi, had turned eighty. Looking every inch as regal, as resplendent and as royally distinguished as… Read more

…the dog in dogma, the tick in politics, the mock of democracy the mar of Marxism, a tic of the fanatic, the boo in Buddhism, the ham in Mohammed, the ash in ashram, a boot in kibbutz, the pee of priesthood, the pee pee of perfect priesthood… Wole Soyinka, Madmen and Specialists (1971) The real cultural moment of the Theatre of the Absurd was the period after the Second World War between the mid-1950s to the late 1960s mostly in… Read more

The determined swerve by some of the stringent promoters of Buhari’s candidacy in 2015, to the promotion of Atiku’s candidacy in the 2019 presidential election, can only be likened to the game of pin pong. In the mind of these game masters, the masses are hapless watchers of the pin pong game, and their heads must be turned left-right-right-left, as they choose, without any emotional concern for the poor necks of their pawns. While they cart away all the trophies… Read more

President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday called on religious leaders in the country to eschew partisan politics in order not to lose their status and public respect. He made the call while speaking at the Interfaith Initiative for Peace Conference in Abuja. The President urged religious leaders to play the roles they had played in 2015 that saw a peaceful election. "I appeal to them to eschew partisan politics and appeal to their respective members to read the manifesto of each… Read more

THIS season of elections has brought to my mind the issue of our preoccupation with politics and politicking while governance takes a second place in our priority in the affairs of our nation. The point I am raising is universal but the consequences may not be universal. It is assumed in some countries that the campaign for the next election begins the moment a new government is sworn in. In other words, campaign for elections is an unending occurrence and… Read more

A Chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Ondo state, Gbenga Fapohunda said politics should be for all and sundry and not for few influential people in the society. Besides, he said the 2019 general elections should allow Nigerians the opportunity to pick their choice. Fapohunda spoke with reporters at the weekend shortly after declaring his intention to run the House of Representatives race at the lower chamber for Idanre/Ifedore federal constituency. He said "there would be a change… Read more

It is quite hard to reconcile the plague currently engulfing Kogi’s political space and the memory that the province is also the cradle of the great Sunday Awoniyi. Or the colossal Silas Daniyan. Before he drew his last breath in November 2007, the Aro of Mopa, once private secretary to immortal Ahmadu Bello, was an embodiment of political accommodation, temperance and intellectual profundity. On the other hand, though a political rival to Awoniyi, Daniyan was cut from no less durable… Read more

Kwara State Commissioner of Police Bolaji Fafowora has said he is not in the state to prosecute any political agenda in 2019. Fafowora, who addressed reporters in Ilorin yesterday, said his posting was routine, but only coincided with the election period. The police chief, who said he might be redeployed before or during the election, assured the people that the police would remain diligent in keeping law and order throughout them. According to him, the police would not shy away… Read more

This is a season when politics is almost getting overdrive; and any comment on life’s happenings at this time may be given political colouration. But no matter. I am an avid reader of the Bible because it is, to any sane mind, the most complete book of knowledge and philosophy. It is recorded in one chapter of the Holy Book that God, the Unquestionable One that created heaven and earth, surveyed His environment and lamented on how bad and evil His… Read more